Judge Dredd Classics Volume 1: Apocalypse War by John Wagner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have to be honest, this was picked up from the library on a whim, and I read the first little bit before I just started skimming…I have to say, I give this a big fat:
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Run Like Hell Ogn by Jeff Dixon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow, first review on GOODREADS! I hope more people read this.
This is an original graphic novel, the writer, Jeff Dixon, is a horror writer, with a gift for the absurd and amusing. He’s also got a site:
https://scaryhorrorwriter.wordpress.com/
I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, but it exceeded that.
Louis is in Hell, and he’s a recruiter, going to get people to give up their souls on Earth for the Devil. He’s great at his job but miserable…
The best part is, that he goes while in the guise of a clown. Yup.
So this scary mofo shows up to haunt your dreams…turns out, Louis makes a major faux-pas…the Clown is the Devil’s favourite garb to scare and torture souls with…so no one else is supposed to use it but him.
This leads to Louis being stripped of his rank and sentenced to 5 years in Personal Hell Prison, where you relive your worst fear non-stop.
Louis isn’t having any of it, and with the help of This guy…
Plans his escape.
Of course, by now, this is one of the funniest yet engrossing graphic novels I’ve read in some time. I was laughing so much at it, but loving it as well.
Throw in some Tarantino style action/violence:
Hell’s Call Girl Madam, and 2 of Satan’s crazy enforcers, and you’ve got one…Hell? Of a party! (See what I did there? wordplay!)
I cannot recommend this highly enough for anyone who wants a nice break from Capes and Grit.
In particular, Lono, I feel like this book was made for you.
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Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Holy 90s Batman! (he also makes an appearance here)
Mitch is a guy who lives rough on the streets, and the first exposure we have to him is his dying after saving some kids from a drive-by.
As things progress, we get moments where he has flashes of what appear to be his past, which we will soon catch up with as readers.
However, what’s cool here, is that Mitch cannot stay dead. He is literally a Resurrection Man. On top of that, every time he dies he is resurrected with new powers (telekinesis, super strength, empathic powers, shapechanging).
This gives the series unlimited potential, and for the first run, where we see him coming in from homelessness through the help of others, to him recalling who he was before he lost his memory, and going to confront that past.
The concepts are strong, the ideas are great, and the wandering stranger, when done well, is superb.
However…by about the halfway point, it seems like Abnett got lazy, or got a different editor who wanted a changed focus for the series…at this point it sorta got silly.
Throw into the mix, crossovers with the JLA, Batman, and Garth Ennis’ Hitman, and you’ve got prime 90s DC gold. When you add in the main villain who’s the Yang to Mitch’s Yin, things get weird.
I like this, and I wanted to like it even more, but the 90s art gets laughable at points, and it feels like phoned-in efforts for the 2nd half of this collection.
This was rebooted for New 52, but only lasted about 12 issues.
I give this collection a solid: 90s
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The Squidder #1 by Ben Templesmith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My brother backed the kickstarter project for this book and tossed me the complete arc that’ll be published by IDW later this year.
First things first the art is simple incredible and worth checking out for that alone, here’s an example.
Shallow Readers 